Our next book, Applique With Attitude, should be available in mid-May. There are some very cute quilts in this book if I do say so myself. Soon I am teaching one of the blocks from the Chirps! pattern shown on the cover of the book. Linda made Chirps! so I've been working on my own version of the quilt to travel with. I thought I'd share the process I went through as I was deciding how to set the blocks together.

I made these four blocks:

That red background is by Liesl Gibson from the City Weekend collection from Moda. It's a very nice choice for this block. Linda used the same fabric in 3 different colors for her mini-quilts.

Normally I would have chosen the sashing and border fabrics before I started the applique but this time I just couldn't get that done before I had to start the sewing. I knew I'd be able to find something, the question was what.

I really liked black and white prints with these blocks so I sashed them in b/w. Idon't know why, but this big dot really called to me for the borders.

It's way over top, more so in person. So I wondered about using a colorful print…

Interesting, but not wonderful. I had the big dot in red…

…but it was the wrong red. The little print on the right was sort of good…

…but I realized when I saw more of it that it was too busy. So I went back to black and white.

I liked this, but decided to try other prints before finalizing my choices.

What these photos illustrate very well is that there is never one 'right' way to make a quilt. Many of the fabrics I tried could have worked well and there are so many more that I didn't even consider. But what's true for you is true for me – I had to decide which of my choices I liked the best. I couldn't help it – I still liked the big black dot. This is where the quilt ended up:

I think it needs a dark binding – either black or red, probably a print, not a solid. I hope I can get it quilted before I leave for California.